Tour the New Catalog

January 21, 2010

Searching for books becomes faster, easier and more fun this February when the library introduces innovative new catalog software that greatly improves searching and offers social networking tools to library users. Read more about the new catalog.

New Titles

It’s easy to see the items most recently purchased by the library, and you can limit this view to show you only the newest CDs or Nonfiction books or you can see what’s On Order and will arrive soon.

Recent Activity

The Recent Activity section displays books and other items that have been recently reviewed by other library users. You can see who’s contributed recently and what new lists have been created.

Bestsellers & Award-Winners

You can also see lists of award-winning and bestselling titles, like the New York Times bestsellers list or the Caldecott Medal honor books.

Smarter Search

Our new catalog is much better at finding what you're looking for. The chances that the catalog has found the item you’re looking for are good.

Search Filters

If you haven’t found just the thing you wanted, use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow your search. You can narrow by item type (book, CD or downloadable audiobook, for instance), by topic, language and more.

Available Now

Working on a report that’s due tomorrow? Select “Available now” to show only items that are on the shelves, waiting for you, right now.

Item Details

When you’ve found the book you want, click on the title or picture to get more details. See where to get the book or place a hold at left. Read about the book below, including comments and ratings by other users.

Review, Comment, Share

You can add your own comments or tags. You can also add this title to your own collection, or mark it to read later, to keep track of what you’ve read or what you want to read. Or, share it with your friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Discover Related Items

Use the right column to broaden your search or find similar items. Exploring subject headings, tags and lists, you’ll discover many related items to read, listen to and watch.

Browse the Shelf

You can even visually browse the shelf to find nearby items.

My DBRL

To use any of the interactive features of the catalog, you will need to log in with your library card number or a username you choose. Use the "My DBRL" menu to see all of your account details.

Check-outs, Renewing &amp Holds

You can renew your books here and see your holds.

Save for Later

My DBRL also gives you access to all the books you’ve added to your collection, your lists and the items you’ve saved for later.

Lists

Create lists of books to share or save your own private reading list.

Privacy Controls

Other users will be able to see your Collection and the lists you create. But, if you want to keep something private, you can specify an item, or entire list, be kept private.